There has been an exponential increase in the numbers of law firms running Google Ads, as SEO and lead generation become much more competitive, and hence firms have more questions than ever about the Ad platform.
What Are Google Ads?
Though it might come as a surprise, some law firms don’t know what Google Ads are. If you don’t, simply Google, “Family Lawyers Chicago” and the top 3 results are from firms paying to be there! It’s a bidding system, with lots of variables and lots of complexity.
What Does Our Law Firm Need to Know About Google Ads?
Firstly, they work! Sure, plenty of folks don’t click on them, but plenty of people do. It’s a numbers game! If you convert 3 files, each of them worthy approximately $5,000 each and you’re spending $4,250 each month running ads, smile, you’re in front.
So, What’s this Quality Score All About?
Well, if you’re managing your own ads in-house (we hope you’re not) or you’re working with an agency, you might be seeing either in your ads dashboard or reporting this thing called “quality score.” In essence, it’s a score that Google Ads apply.
Here’s what Google says:
Quality score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords and landing pages. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.
- You can see your Quality Score (reported on a 1-10 scale) and its components (expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience) in the “Keyword Analysis” field of your account.
- The more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you’ll see higher Quality Scores.
- Quality Score is an aggregated estimate of your overall performance in ad auctions, and is not used at auction time to determine Ad Rank.
Sounds Serious and Our Quality Score Isn’t 10.
We’re yet to see a 10 so relax, unless it’s a brand related keyword. In fact, at Fast Firms, like other smart agencies that do this work, we don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it.
Now, we don’t think anyone would argue with the fact that there is a clear relationship between CPC and Quality Score. However, in our experience, AdWords success isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) measured by how cheap your clicks are. The goal of a paid search campaign isn’t to drive clicks, rather, the objective is to drive clicks that ultimately convert into file opens. Practically speaking if we’re spending $30,000 on Ads each month for a personal injury firm, but generating 16 file opens each month, no-one is complaining, quite the opposite, they’re doing handstands!
What Should Our Law Firm Do Next?
If your law firms is hung up on Quality Score you’re probably wasting time that can be better spent elsewhere. The real ready reckoner isn’t Quality Score, Impressions or CPC, it really is conversions. How many files are you attributing to your Ads campaign and if it’s not a figure you would have hoped, talk with your agency and if need be, replace them.
We’re always happy to chat and offer a Free Adwords Assessment for law firms.
